{"id":2462748,"date":"2026-06-16T20:40:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T20:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2462748"},"modified":"2026-06-16T20:40:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T20:40:05","slug":"dick-vitales-latest-comments-about-kentucky-basketball-is-music-to-vols-fans-ears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/dick-vitales-latest-comments-about-kentucky-basketball-is-music-to-vols-fans-ears\/","title":{"rendered":"Dick Vitale\u2019s latest comments about Kentucky basketball is music to Vols fans\u2019 ears"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Tennessee\u2013Kentucky basketball is quickly becoming one of the best rivalries in college basketball. <\/a>The two teams played two big games last year where the Vols unfortunately let things slip late, but both matchups turned into instant classics. Meanwhile, a Joshua Jeferson-less Iowa State team beat Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament, while Tennessee knocked off Iowa State in the Sweet 16 to extend its run to three straight Elite Eights, once again marking a deeper run in the tournament for Rick Barnes. <\/p>\n

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Tennessee basketball’s defense could be better than expected with Jalen Haralson\u2019s latest quote<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Next year should be no shortage of big-time games. Tennessee has arguably its best roster on paper ever, with Terrence Hill, Juke Harris, Jalen Haralson, Dai Dai Ames, and more. Kentucky, on the other hand, also has a stacked roster on paper, highlighted by Iowa State sharpshooter Milan Momcilovic.<\/a><\/p>\n

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What stands out is the fact that despite Kentucky\u2019s big-time roster, they still play a bunch of cupcakes<\/a>. And don\u2019t just take my word for it, as longtime college basketball broadcaster Dick Vitale said it himself. He posted on X: \u201cThe team has many cupcakes on their pre-conference schedule & 5 legit challenges – BBN – Cats fans & players deserve a more challenging schedule in getting ready for the season – especially having a team with over 21 MILLION in NIL dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The @KentuckyMBB<\/a> has many cupcakes on their pre conference schedule & 5 legit challenges – BBN -Cats fans & players deserve a more challenging schedule in getting ready for the @SEC<\/a> – especially having a TEAM with over 21 MILLION in NIL dollars .<\/p>\n

\u2014 Dick Vitale (@DickieV) June 16, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

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Tennessee and Kentucky are on two different wavelengths<\/h2>\n

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I actually kind of like Mark Pope, he seems like a pretty likable guy, but Kentucky fans are frustrated with what he\u2019s done so far. Last year was disappointing considering the talent and money on that roster. With him adding more cupcake games to the schedule, maybe he feels like it helps his chances of keeping his job?<\/p>\n

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However, it\u2019s very on brand for Kentucky to beat up on a bunch of mid-majors to inflate their win total and act like they\u2019re the greatest team ever. I understand that every team plays buy games, but Kentucky has taken it to a whole new level this year. They will play Manhattan, JMU, Northern Arizona, Grambling State, Bryant, Sacred Heart, and Gardner-Webb. Come on, this is weak for a supposedly elite program.<\/p>\n

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To Kentucky\u2019s credit, they do play Kansas in the Champions Classic, and they also have Louisville and North Carolina on the schedule. But let\u2019s be serious, the overall schedule is still heavily skewed in their favor.<\/p>\n

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What makes this notable is that Kentucky\u2019s run-and-gun style is often too much for mid-major opponents, and most teams can\u2019t keep up. Pope\u2019s style works well when he\u2019s playing against teams with clearly lesser talent. That has been proven. On the contrary, when Kentucky plays elite teams, it doesn\u2019t translate nearly as well.<\/p>\n

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Overall, I think Pope does have his best team since arriving in Lexington, but the frontcourt remains a concern. I wouldn\u2019t be shocked if they finish in the top half of the league and make the tournament as a middle seed, somewhere in the 4\u20136 range. But in the end, Vitale is right,Kentucky is too good to be playing a bunch of weak games. Then again, that\u2019s just what they do. They\u2019re kind of the stubborn middle child.<\/p>\n

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\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source allfortennessee.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tennessee\u2013Kentucky basketball is quickly becoming one of the best rivalries in college basketball. The two teams played two big games last year where the Vols unfortunately let things slip late, but both matchups turned into instant classics. Meanwhile, a Joshua Jeferson-less Iowa State team beat Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament, while Tennessee knocked off Iowa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2462749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2462748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Dick-Vitales-latest-comments-about-Kentucky-basketball-is-music-to.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2462748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2462750,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462748\/revisions\/2462750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2462749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2462748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2462748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2462748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}